Guns gone wild

It was discouraging to see my victorious opponent in the recent 13th District congressional race, George Holding, say in an N&O story that he has no easy answers to why shootings such as the Newtown incident happen, but adds, “Gun control is not the answer.” Why not?

I would introduce legislation to ban military-style weapons, close the “gun show loophole” and so on in a New York minute. But the GOP representatives in Congress are lining up to protect their version of Second Amendment rights, their benefactors from the NRA and their determination to stop any progress on responsible regulation on this issue.

When we require safety guidelines aplenty for cars, toys, sidewalks and building design, surely we can extend this oversight to the safety of our children from guns gone wild.

All countries have their share of mentally ill people, and our efforts to improve our mental health services shout for improvements, but it is America with our easy access to guns that puts our children at more risk to be murdered, statistically speaking, than those in many other industrialized countries.

We are not going to ban guns in totality, but let us take rational first steps to stop this carnage.

Charles Malone

Raleigh